Shuffle: Kooza
by Becses
Summary: Ten songs, ten drabbles! This round is focused on CdS' Kooza, featuring giant music boxes, dancing skeletons, internal musings, artistic expression, and all around magic!


Author's notes: The rules here are simple: I put my iPod on shuffle, and for the first ten songs played, I wrote a little drabble. This one is based on my favorite Cirque du Soleil show, Kooza.

 **Shuffle: Kooza  
by  
becca-doodle**

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 **1\. Painter Song - Norah Jones**

The only way L'Innocent knew how to express himself was through his work. He could barely muster a word to anyone, but when he was with his charcoals and brushes and sketchbooks and papers-all kept in a wooden box, adorned with reds and blues and golden patterns, and, best of all, a magnificent crescent moon, made from fragments of a mirrorball and plaster-he was in control.

He drew little tin soldiers adorned in reds and golds and striped hats. He curled sparkling gold paper with blue and orange and twisted them into swirling patterns. He cut together a circus tent in a colorful mosaic.

He painted his father's face, or, at least, what memories he could scrape together from the things he'd heard.

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 **2\. Howlin' for You - The Black Keys**

She was a pistol. A fiery, feisty thing who knew how to flaunt her talents. Higher and higher she vaulted her perch into the air, swinging upon it as if a child on a playground, all the while flashing that wicked smile.

Oh, how she taunted the Trickster. How she reveled in outmaneuvering him; charming him.

His heart, he admitted only to himself, belonged to her...

...to _Apollonia._

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 **3\. Do It With A Rockstar - Amanda Palmer and the Grand Theft Orchestra**

Apollonia stretched her pale limbs as she slid from her trapeze into a split, graceful and fluid. Her face twisted from contentment into irritation when she realized she was not alone.

"What do you want, _Trickster,"_ she sighed, not bothering to open her eyes.

"Come on, now," the smartly dressed Trickster pulled a mock pout, "That wasn't even five bloody seconds."

Apollonia rose in one fluid motion. "You shouldn't choose such obvious positions. I mean, from behind? Really now?"

Trickster pressed his chin to his hand in mock thought. "Okay, then. If not from behind…how about in front?"

He shot before her, a vision of stripes and fluidity, only a hair's length away from her. The corners of her mouth turned up in an elegant smile, looping an arm lazily around his shoulders.

" _Do you wanna dance,"_ she whispered, _"Do you wanna lose control? Do you wanna?"_

And with that, they were swirling about the courtyard, and soon, into the Bataclan.

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 **4\. Dear Prudence - Grace Potter and the Nocturnals (originally The Beatles)**

L'Innocent was admiring the courtyard, the Dog following close behind him. The flowers bloomed before him, brilliant scarlet and gold and blue and orange...just like his colorful new outfit! He was beginning to see that he had power in Kooza; power he never thought imaginable. The skeletons had vanished, and the Bataclan returned to its former glory. He was slowly, surely getting ahold of these so-called 'powers.''

Though he still had a lot to learn, he was getting there.

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 **5\. The Secret Life of Dr. Calgori - Abney Park**

The Roi des Fous lead him to the giant music box, his footmen ambling along behind him, both glee and trepidation in their spirits. L'Innocent gazed at it in awe. He'd seen music boxes before, but not like this: a gazebo, gilded from its scalloped top to the stairs leading to it, covered in sporadic, geometric patterns. A faint glimpse inside seemed to indicate more patterns, more like a tree...and vague shapes of a figure or two inside. A thin layer of rust seemed to be the only thing blocking out its brilliance.

The king gestured for him to wait a moment, then to his footmen to follow him. They did so, darting behind the music box. L'Innocent nodded dumbly, still admiring the structure. He edged his way in, slowly. The king and his footmen pulled out what looked like a giant key, intended to wind the contraption. They struggled about, its weight fluctuating between the three of them. L'Innocent cocked his head to the side, confused.

It was then that the manhole cover flew open, startling all four of them, out of which emerged the biggest fellow L'Innocent had ever seen. He was bedecked from head to toe in what looked like protective gear: a scuba-esque mask on his face, gloves, and heavy boots, and a label reading **"HEIMLOSS"** across his chest; all in blue-grey. The clowns waved at him, dropping the key on the king's foot while he was at it.

As the faux monarch pulled out his trusty rubber steak and smacked his footmen on the head with it, _Heimloss_ walked up to them and _loudly_ cleared his throat. The tomfoolery ceased, and he gestured to the key. The smaller footman-donning a yellow fez and garish suspenders-scooted it over with his foot. _Heimloss_ picked it up, stuck it into the opening, and turned the key slowly. The rust began to fade, and the gazebo glittered like a jewel in the midday sun. Like a moth to a flame, L'Innocent was drawn to the music box, ascending the staircase and pushing his way in...

* * *

 **6\. Shiny - Jermaine Clement (from 'Moana')**

CLICK! A camera flashed in L'Innocent's face, bewildering him even further than he already was.

He didn't mean for whatever this was to occur in Kooza. All he did was get ahold of Trickster's scepter and tried it out for himself…Now, there were skeletons dancing around him, their ringleader a smartly-dressed skeleton with rubies glittering in his eye sockets and on his bony fingers! The courtyard had taken on the appearance of a Vegas-style show, complete with feathered showgirl skeletons, poker tables and a giant stage.

It was as if a voodoo priest crashed a Day of the Dead party and threw it in a blender with glow-sticks and those rubber hose cartoons with the dancing skeletons he caught on TV one Halloween.

The singer crooned a pretty catchy tune, though. Even _he_ wanted to dance.

Of course, he didn't have time to marinate on this for long, because these skeletons were quickly gaining on him, their thin fingers tearing at his beloved kite...and at _him!_

* * *

 **7\. Hurts Like Heaven - Coldplay**

L'Innocent often took his kite to the park, though all attempts to actually get it into the air were just futile. He could sew all the patches he wanted onto it: the thing just wouldn't fly!

As the kite plummeted to the ground yet again, L'Innocent heaved an irritated sigh and trudged over to pick it up.

"Really," he chided the inanimate kite, as if it were a child, " _Now_ , you're just taunting me! I know you can do it!"

And that's what he told himself, time and time again: ' _One of these days, you will fly.'_

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 **8\. Unwell - Matchbox Twenty**

L'Innocent knew people looked at him funny. He was so nervous, so unsure, so worried about what was going to happen, that he could barely muster up the courage to talk to the cashier at the coffee stand in proper sentences. But, he mustered whatever confidence was in him just to ease through the day as easily as possible.

His world was beginning to fade into black and white. Where was the brilliant, _brilliant_ color?

When all seemed right?

All seemed possible?

All seemed within _his_ reach?

They became an imprint on his soul, like pastels smeared on a canvas.

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 **9\. Scavenger - Emilie Autumn**

The party had ended. The music came to a halt. What remained was a heavy silence that deafened the whole courtyard. The skeletons-who, before, had looked strangely jolly, dancing to the melodies they tapped out on their own bones-now looked like starved animals, hollow eyed, hungry and eager for their next meal.

The Crooner bowed low. His ruby eyes gleamed mischievously; _wickedly_.

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 **10\. Tightrope - Janelle Monáe feat. Big Boi**

He watched Turk and his group on the high wire, completely rapt at their act. On either side were Trickster, waving his scepter casually, unrelenting in his game, and Veda, gazing up proudly at her husband. The heads of the Charivari really knew how to dazzle!

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Endnote: Please read and review! Much obliged!


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